Random Video Chat for Global Book Clubs

A book club does not have to mean folding chairs in a library. If you love reading and want to hear how people elsewhere see the same story, random video chat can help you build a small club of your own.

Finding Readers Among Strangers

The quickest way to find a fellow reader on a video chat is to show it. Keep a book in view, or open with “I am halfway through a novel and need someone to talk about it with.” Readers tend to recognize each other within a sentence.

When you video chat with random people about books, choose titles that travel well. Classics that exist in many translations, such as Around the World in Eighty Days, give people from different countries a shared starting point, and a story about a journey suits a conversation that crosses borders. Recent bestsellers work too, since big international releases reach shelves in many countries.

Expect different readings. A partner in another country may notice humor, history or politics in a novel that you missed completely. That contrast is the whole point of a global club, and it is what makes an international video chat about books so rewarding.

If your partner speaks another language, type the trickier ideas. Text messages can be translated into more than 40 languages, which helps when a discussion of themes gets more nuanced than everyday small talk.

Not every partner will be a reader, of course. A friendly random chat about something else is still a good conversation.

Turning Strangers Into a Club

RandomChat pairs people one-on-one, so your club grows one conversation at a time rather than in a single group call. That has an upside: each discussion gets your full attention.

A workable format looks like this:

• Pick a book and a reading pace, such as four chapters a week.
• Meet each regular reader in a private, password-protected room at an agreed time.
• Keep a short list of discussion questions so every conversation builds on the last.

You can create a private room for each standing conversation. After a month, three or four regular partners reading the same book give you a club in everything but the folding chairs.

Keep it friendly and simple. Be the one who sends the reminder, but respect people who drop out, because reading schedules slip. Share contact details only when you both want to, and keep every live video chat kind and SFW.

A shared book is one of the gentlest ways to make friends online, because the conversation always has somewhere to go. If you want more ideas, our page on how to meet people online is a good start. Then pick your next book, open a random video chat, and go looking for readers.